


The Story of Tonight

by silveryink



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adventure, Brotherly Love, Gen, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Minor Original Character(s), References to Norse Mythology, Stargazing, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 12:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21161915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: Two times Thor and Loki got lost on hiking trails, and two ways they ended.





	The Story of Tonight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Storyteller_of_the_Forest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyteller_of_the_Forest/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Labyrinth of Shadows](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17888810) by [Storyteller_of_the_Forest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyteller_of_the_Forest/pseuds/Storyteller_of_the_Forest). 

> Hello everyone! I was recently re-reading the amazing story, Labyrinth of Shadows, and I remembered an old theory I had about how the myth of Jormungandr could be incorporated into the MCU. This tale is based off that theory (which is discussed in the story) and the events of LoS.  
I highly recommend you check out the rest of Storyteller's works as they are all wonderful (and there are a few references in this to those stories)!
> 
> Title from [The Story of Tonight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vqwrepaMR0) from Hamilton (which is a wonderful musical).
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!

“You know, it’s been a while since we’ve gone hiking,” Thor said, sipping his tea. Loki hummed absently, turning over his newspaper, but Thor could tell that he’d caught his brother’s interest.

“And why did you bring it up now?” Loki asked, folding up the paper and sliding it over the table for Thor to see.

Thor shrugged. “I thought we could go hiking.”

Loki fixed him with a look. Thor hid from it by shuffling the newspaper open. This went on for a minute or so before Loki rose to clear their plates. Thor glanced up momentarily, halfway through an article about the contribution of New Asgard’s citizens to the rest of the Earth on the subject of welfare. The article, written presumably in passive-aggressive response to an off-hand comment by some leading official at a convention, pointed out that they’d done a lot more to protect the environment than the unnamed leader had during his career, by suggesting various technological innovations (or so it would be to Midgard) that Asgard had used which were environmentally friendly.

“Sure,” Loki said, and Thor had to take a moment to register what he meant.

“Sure?”

“That is what I said, yes.” To his chagrin, Loki sounded amused. Thor rolled his eyes, but didn’t bother concealing his grin. He’d been looking towards exploring the topography within Norway, which was ironically one of the few European countries they hadn’t toured after the business at Tony Stark’s Haunted Mansion, which was what everyone had unanimously named the incident.

“We could also visit the fjords,” Loki added. “I’ve heard a lot about them from Miss Maximoff, so if we travel around Norway we can’t miss that.”

“True, she’d be very annoyed if we did,” Thor said with a grin. “Although, it’s strange that we haven’t gone hiking in the woods that are right behind our home. We could do that now, and tour the country later, when things quiet down a little with Earth First.”

Loki shrugged. “I don’t think anyone’s particularly interested in hiking through the very place an army of Jotnar and Dark Elves attacked our home.”

Thor nodded. “It does have several good trails,” he commented.

Loki remained silent for quite some time, and Thor could hear the clacking of the plates being put away into their respectful shelves. When the noise stopped, Loki spoke up. “I daresay we’d have to map out the place sometime soon, if it’s lying on a ley line.”

“Lying on a ley line,” Thor muttered, immediately liking the tongue-twister. “That seems fine to me,” he called to his brother.

“Of course it would,” Loki snarked, and that was that.

* * *

Thor could have sworn that he saw the strange tree at least thrice, but he wasn’t going to tell Loki, purely because he would lord it over him for the next century. He was well aware that they’d strayed off the trail, but how hard could it be to get back on it?

“We’ve been going in circles for two hours,” Loki said, exasperated. “I know because this is the fourth time we’ve seen that tree.”

“There are many trees here,” Thor protested.

“This one was marked by my magic, though,” Loki pointed out. “I can sense it every time we pass.”

Thor frowned. “Why would you mark a tree with your  _ seidr _ ?”

“It happened by accident when we fought Ymir!” Loki tossed his rucksack onto the leaf-strewn floor of the forest and lay back against it, laying a hand across his eyes. Thor huffed and raised an eyebrow at his brother’s antics, setting down his own pack as well. This was as good a spot as any to rest for a while.

“Is this your way of silent protest?”

Loki hummed an affirmative, positioning himself in such a way that could only really be described as  _ basking _ . Thor wondered idly whether he’d retained some traits of a snake when he’d last shifted into one, and decided that it was in his best interests to not bring it up. He sat down next to his brother, leaves crinkling as he did so. He idly played with Loki’s hair, gazing at the soothing reddish-gold glory of autumn.

“Alright, yes,” Thor admitted at last, “I  _ did _ lose the trail.”

Loki cracked open an eyelid, smirking triumphantly. “Fortunately for you, I scoped this area after the battle to dispose of the dead. Not the most pleasant task, but as the most qualified mage in New Asgard, I was the only one who could go this close to the barrier spell.”

Thor tilted his head curiously. “How long did the spell last after Ymir was killed?”

Loki shrugged. “A few days or so,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Or, that’s what Heimdall told me. I only went in sometime after. I was met with no resistance then, though it still felt odd.”

Thor nodded. The spell had been quite strong, and he knew enough about ley lines to be sure that it would have been even more amplified if Loki had felt its effects long after the spellcaster had died. His brother’s instincts around magic were, in his experience, better not doubted.

* * *

Thor dismounted his horse, sensing that she was ready to collapse. He regretted pushing her for so long, now made aware by his exasperated brother that they’d been going in circles for a major part of the day. Thor prided himself on his sense of direction, and had been to the forests surrounding Vanaheim’s capital city several times, so this was a new development for him. He bit back a curse and swept his hair away from his eyes, wincing when the sunlight blinded him. He squinted and noticed that Loki had also dismounted and was leading his horse over to the nearby shade. He followed him wordlessly, and found that the trees concealed a small pool nearby where they could rest some time.

“Luckily for you, I studied a map of the forests,” Loki muttered, refilling his flask and purifying the water with a spell. “So I happened to know the lake was here.”

“Do you know how to get us out?” Thor reached for the flask once Loki drank from it.

His brother shot him a scathing look. “No, I didn’t get that far because  _ someone _ wanted to leave bright and early, despite being late because he couldn’t choose between his two best swords. This isn’t even a hunt!”

Thor scowled, lowering the flask and screwing on the cap. “You could have reminded me that we were late, or brought the map with you.”

Loki smacked his forehead. “Oh, of course, let me try to pack the one thing you made me leave behind when you practically hauled me away from my desk. The map was delicate, had I tried to bring it with me, it would have crumbled under the wind. As it is, I won’t be escaping the wrath of Vigdis because of the way I left the blasted thing!”

Thor grumbled unintelligibly but didn’t protest, knowing that his brother was not exaggerating. Vigdis was the head librarian and archivist, and known to all for maintaining a strict set of rules about decorum within the library and when they issued something outside. Thor had once taken a day too long to return a book about astronomy and had had to stand in silence as she scolded him for over an hour. Loki had peeked in for a moment and walked out again without hesitation when he’d seen the scene. Really, he couldn’t blame his brother for his concern about the book.

“Norns, this was supposed to be a simple ride through Vanaheim forests,” he grumbled.

Loki chuckled. “I think you’ll find that nothing is ever truly  _ simple _ when the two of us are involved.”

Thor’s horse snorted and tossed her head, splattering him with water droplets. He wiped them away with his sleeve and grinned at his brother. “True enough.”

* * *

In the end, they stayed in the forest for the rest of the afternoon. The sun was slowly creeping towards the horizon when Thor finally stood after a good while of exchanging memories with his brother, who looked even more cat-like in the shadows that cast upon them, shifting with the movement of the leaves. “I suppose we should head back,” he said. “I remember the way we came, at least.”

Loki shook his head. “No, actually, I know of a way to go into a different trail. Remember, I went scouting after the battle.”

Right, of course. “And what exactly did you find?”

Loki stood gracefully and dusted off his jacket. “Something you’ll like. Now get a move on, I want to be there before the sun sets.”

Thor grunted and hefted his rucksack. This time, he let Loki lead the way, trusting his sense of direction. This had only been the second time they’d gotten lost when Thor had led the way, but Norns help him if Loki wouldn’t tease him about it for the next century.

“You know-”

“Don’t,” Thor warned. Loki smirked.

They walked on for some quarter of an hour more before stopping at a curtain of ivy. “I do hope you remembered how to climb,” Loki said, using a ski pole to move aside the ivy. Wait.

“Where in the Nine did you get a ski pole?”

“We’re about to climb a rock wall that has potentially lost any good handholds, and you ask me where I got the  _ ski pole _ ?”

“It’s a valid question.”

Loki shook his head. “I borrowed it from that resort we went to in Switzerland.”

“You - Loki, that was a year ago!”

“Thor, if you looked at it you’ll find that it’s actually broken. They practically begged me to take it out of their hands.” Loki held it out and Thor noticed what he meant. “I nearly fell over the first time I used it, so they switched it with another. They were going to dispose of it, but I thought it had a better use if I took it along.”

He pushed away the curtain of ivy, carefully avoiding touching it. Thor recognised the plant - it was something they were both allergic to (that most humans and Aesir weren’t). He supposed that Loki must have had this idea for a while now, if he’d prepared for it a year in advance. He bit back a smile. Loki, unconscious of what Thor was thinking, hoisted himself over onto a ledge and nimbly climbed to the top, leaving his rucksack there before hopping back onto the ledge lightly to get Thor’s own and sling it over his shoulder.

“Are you sure it’s safe to leave your pack like that?”

Loki looked down, hair falling into his face. He blew it aside and raised a brow. “I’m the only one who knows of the place,” he said. “I doubt any human has set foot here in the last century, since we’re well past the hiking trail.”

Thor had to admit that this was likely. Loki had led them through a trail that was strewn with autumn leaves, some of which Thor was sure were decomposing, and notably unused (at least recently). He shrugged and hauled himself up to the ledge and followed his brother’s lead.

* * *

Thor squinted at the bushy green that he saw before him, flummoxed. He had no idea how he’d gotten so thoroughly lost. Thor remembered going hunting in these very forests in the past, and he had a rather good sense of direction (something Loki had grudgingly admitted when the two of them were more rested). Night was nearly upon them, which meant that they either had to find a way out in the next quarter of an hour (which Thor thought was unlikely) or stay in the clearing for the night.

Thor carefully made his way down to the lower branches before leaping off the last one. Loki stood, arms crossed, against the trunk of another tree. Thor brushed off the leaves in his tunic and sighed. “We’ll have to spend the night here,” he said.

Loki nodded grimly. “I was afraid of that.”

Thor frowned, and his brother took that as an explanation to continue. “Vanaheim forests are rich with  _ seidr _ . It’s a strange phenomenon, but it makes it less safe to stay overnight.”

“Brilliant,” Thor muttered. Loki ignored him.

“However, it means that I can cast as many concealment spells as I like, and no one will really notice my signature.”

Thor nodded absently. He trusted Loki’s wards to be as secure as he promised. It was more likely that he forgot to consider an option as opposed to a fault in his spell, and Thor knew that Loki would weave protection spells as carefully as needed, given their current situation.

Loki moved around the small clearing, taking care to ward the areas around the horses as well as them. Thor lay his cloak on the ground and settled against a tree, confident in his brother’s abilities. Loki, on securing the area, reclined against the tree across him. “That should be enough for a night’s rest,” he said softly. “You should go to sleep, brother, I’ll take first watch.”

“You’ve just warded the area,” Thor protested, despite the drowsiness that threatened to take over him. “You need to rest.”

Loki grinned and shook his head. “You’re ready to nod off any minute, brother. Rest, I’ll take first watch.”

It was a good thing he didn’t expect him to reply, Thor thought, for he was already asleep before Loki had finished speaking.

* * *

Thor lost his grip on one of the handholds as he clambered up the rock. He had no idea how his brother had easily navigated the slippery stone, which was only ever harder to climb because of the irregular patches of moss and lichen he had to take care to avoid. It was one such patch that Thor had just put his hand in. He swore softly and wiped his hand on his thin jacket which he’d worn more for the strip of fabric that glowed under bright light than anything else.

Loki peeked over the edge, smirking. “You might want to watch out for lichen.”

Thor swore a bit more, this time at his infuriating brother. Loki chuckled and returned to whatever he was doing. He heard large flapping noise and assumed that he’d laid out the large blanket they’d brought along if they intended to stay overnight. Brunnhilde had been told to expect this, so Thor wasn’t too worried about Asgard with her in charge of things.

In less than a minute, he reached the top. As he stood to dust himself off, he noticed that what he’d assumed was a large rock could only really be described as a cove. The sky darkened even further above them, giving way to a few stars. Loki, Thor noticed, had indeed laid out the blanket, weighing the corners down with their rucksacks. He was already stretched out on one side, one arm under his head which was turned to the sky. Thor joined him.

The two of them watched the sky become peppered with more stars for a while in silence. “I told you when I discovered this place,” Loki said. “It wasn’t the first time I’d been here, though. I found it when we were still building New Asgard, when I needed a day to myself.”

Thor didn’t say anything to that. There wasn’t anything he  _ could _ say.

“Brunnhilde kicked me out of the house because apparently I’d isolated myself for too long, and since I didn’t feel up to doing much governing that day, I walked for most of the day in the forest. That was when I found this,” he finished, gesturing around them with his free hand.

Thor looked at the cove with new eyes. He could see why Loki would have found this place to be a solace in his grief. It was peaceful and beautiful, and one could spend the next millennium lying here watching the stars. It was one with the greenhouse by their home, Thor realised. He must have been the only other person to set foot here, and he felt honoured by his brother’s decision.

“It’s lovely here,” Thor murmured.

Loki hummed. “Do you know, there are absolutely no constellations in common with what we observed from Asgard?”

Thor did, in fact, know this. He may have taken less trips to Midgard in the past than Loki, but he’d studied the skies long enough to know this. He’d gone stargazing with Jane a few times, and she’d brought along some of her equipment one night. Thor had helped her set up the telescope and carefully mapped out the constellations he could see. That was when Jane had learned about his experience with astrology and astrophysics.

He belatedly remembered that Loki had also been particularly fond of observing the stars and other celestial formations and had often camped over at the Bifrost until he, their mother or their father had dragged him back to the palace. He made a silent note to get him a telescope for his next birthday. Midgardian technology wasn’t all that advanced, as compared to what they had on Asgard, but they had adapted well enough that it wouldn’t bother them.

Telescopes were also not that far off from Asgard’s own, Thor had observed the last time he’d seen some, which was about three months ago while talking to Jane.

“I haven’t been here since the incident at Stark’s mansion,” Loki commented.

Thor frowned. “That was a year ago,” he said.

Loki shrugged as best as he could from the way he lay with his hand pillowing his head. “I am aware of the progression of time,” he deflected.

Thor decided not to call him out about it. “Funnily, though, that wasn’t the first time we encountered the name  _ Jormungandr _ .”

Loki looked startled, before he chuckled. “Honestly, I should have expected the name to carry a double-edged meaning. The humans had, dare I say, predicted it.”

“I’m not entirely sure they had all the facts right,” Thor said drily.

“Oh, no, they were,” Loki said gleefully. “Or are you forgetting what happened in that underground cave those sorcerers used as their lair?”

“I’m more distracted by the aptness of calling it a lair.”

“You would be. That does not detract from the fact that I did have a hand in creating  _ Jormungandr _ , though perhaps not as literally as the humans made it out to be.”

“No, it just gave Mother a heart attack when she visited Earth during - when was it?”

“The Crusades, I think.” Loki looked thoughtful. “If I recall correctly, she seemed more reluctant to visit after that trip.”

“I would have been too, if I didn’t know better,” Thor muttered. “That was Snorri who wrote the  _ Eddas _ , yes? No wonder we stopped communicating with Midgard after that fiasco.”

Loki’s laughter rang clearly about the clearing.

* * *

By the time Thor was awake, light filtered through the cracks in the treeline. Thor sat bolt upright immediately as the haze of sleep faded into a cold trickle of dread in his spine. He flicked a quick gaze around the clearing and frowned. Funny enough, there was nothing there. Loki’s wards would have held up after all, not that he doubted his brother’s prowess in  _ seidr _ .

Wait.

When Thor had swept a cursory glance around the area to reveal nothing, he’d not noticed that  _ nothing _ meant that Loki wasn’t there either.

Well. There was a dagger dropped onto the ground, which was a bit odd, unless this was another of his brother’s shapeshifting pranks. Which didn’t seem all that likely once Thor examined the engravings on the knife which identified it as his last gift to Loki, mirroring his very first dagger. This knife was of traditional Alfheim make, with runes curling about the hilt spelling phrases that ensured the wielder would never miss their mark, and that the blade would never dull or lose quality. The dagger was more than likely to outlast either of the brothers.

Thor picked it up hesitantly, sending out the slightest of his connection to his brother’s magic to check whether it had the usual amount of power that would, to anyone slightly sensitive to magic, be Loki’s signature, more personal and unique than any form of identification except perhaps a blood sigil. Norns, this was horrible. He  _ can’t _ have lost his brother, not after their return being already delayed by the loss of the trail. He tucked the dagger into an empty sheath at his waist and went to check up on the horses.

Their steeds seemed to be fine, it a bit annoyed at being woken up after a day’s hard riding. They seemed to sense that another tough day was in store for them, and tossed their heads with a huff and a snort. This was fine with Thor, who hadn’t exactly planned to bring them along with him. Scouting the area for his brother would require him to be on foot. He loosened the animals’ ties enough that they could graze and drink from the small pond without breaking loose into the forest. It wouldn’t stop them from getting stolen, but that was a risk Thor would take to find his brother as quickly as possible.

He did shift some of their supplies from the saddlebags into a small pack - first aid, if any of them needed it, some of the currency they carried with them, a few dried fruits and a flask of water. Thor decided to take Loki’s flask, which was obviously enchanted to hold a lot more water than it looked like it could hold. It was only practical. The dagger he sheathed at his hip, and strapped his battleaxe to his back, making sure that it didn’t tangle with the straps of his pack.

Then he set out on his way.

After half a day of walking, he found a scrap of gold fabric speared on the tip of a particularly sharp branch. The area he’d stumbled into was rather brambly, so even if Loki hadn’t noticed, it was quite possible that it had caught onto his sleeve and tearing away that scrap. Thor plucked it off the branch and examined it carefully. It wasn’t always that his brother wore gold with his usual green over black (which, though unusual for an Aesir, was good camouflage against the forest backdrop), but he occasionally lined his sleeves with soft golden silk. Thor knew that the only other time he wore gold fabric was with his court attire or on diplomatic trips. This was, he remembered, technically one of those.

Thor stuffed the scrap away into the pack and trudged on, now with a bit more purpose than earlier. At least he had a semblance of direction now.

His trail led him to the mouth of a cave. Thor wondered which section of Vanaheim forests he was in that had caves, and idly thought that Loki would love to explore the area. Well. Given that he hadn’t come here with that thought in mind. Thor shivered, though there was no sudden gust of wind or reduction in the fairly warm temperature. He reached for his battleaxe, sliding it out of the straps silently, carefully. His fledgeling lightning powers were still too uncontrollable for anything major, but he was well aware of his strength in battle.

The powers were controllable enough for him to use them internally and perceive the darkening walls of the cave as brighter than they really were. Loki had spoken at length to him several times about the importance of perception as well as literal meaning while wielding magic, and while Thor’s storm-oriented power was a rawer form, it still carried the same basic principles. He was only then glad that he’d listened, at least partly, to his brother’s impromptu lectures.

A low murmur of voices reached him, and he ducked behind an arch. The voices rose in volume and Thor flattened himself against the stone, barely peeking out for fear of being discovered. He turned, hearing a muffled sound behind him just as those voices faded down the length of the cave, just in time to block Loki’s strike towards him. He hissed softly, grateful that he could see in the dark and only just remembering that Loki might have not done the same.

“Brother, it’s me,” he whispered, and Loki’s stance slackened. Thor let go of his arm and held out Loki’s blade, hilt-first, to him. The trickster accepted it with a nod.

“How did you find the place?” He sounded curious, like it was an everyday matter for them to stumble upon a cave right in the middle of a forest. “There are several wards on it, it ought to have been undetectable.”

Thor shrugged. “They must have failed, I suppose. Do you know how you got here?”

Loki shook his head, and Thor noticed his eyes light up in their characteristic shade of green - literally, in the colour of his magic. “They surprised me. Stunned me before I could do anything, and brought me here.”

“Are you alright?” THor asked, spotting a strip of fabric hastily tied around his head, with a patch of blood staining the cloth near his temple.

Loki reached for it and grimaced. “I told you, they surprised me. Don’t worry, they left me alone for the most part - but I’m incredibly curious to know why a group of sorcerers would abduct another, take them into their... “

“Lair?”

Loki huffed, amused. “Their lair, yes. I don’t suppose you have any idea why?”

Thor shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”

The mage hummed. “I doubted you would. This place seems awfully secretive. It wasn’t plotted on the Vanaheim map I was using.”

Loki lifted his hand, and lit a small orb of light that hovered above his palm. He made his way back inside. Thor frowned and jogged after him, catching up the few steps with ease.

“Why are you going back in?”

“Well, you’re here, aren’t you? You can warn me of any danger while I investigate what exactly is going on here.”

“Wait a minute,” Thor said, removing a roll of bandages from his pack, “bind that up properly first.”

“It will heal,” Loki said, but Thor had already used his hesitation to step in front of him. The trickster sighed and allowed Thor to remove the makeshift bandage he’d made out of his shirt, clean and replace it with fresh linen. To his credit, he only winced lightly while Thor cleaned the wound, otherwise did not complain.

When Thor was putting away his supplies, Loki asked, a bit tetchy, “Are you done fussing now? Can we go on?”

Thor grinned. Looking up, he said, “Lead the way, brother.”

Loki was aware of just about everything in his surroundings, including his brother’s careful reversed tread into the cave. He navigated through the winding corridors to the heart of the cave, where a wizened old sorcerer sat on a throne. It was more of a glorified chair overgrown with roots, though, but Loki could understand the need to impress. He tapped Thor on the shoulder, alerting him to the entity’s presence.

“Loki, son of Odin,” the figure rasped, and Loki could only then sense Their immense power, “what brings you to this sanctum?”

Loki cocked his head and cast a gaze around the cavern. “My apologies,” he said to Them, “I wasn’t previously aware that this was a sanctum. If I might ask, what is this the sanctum of?”

“Yggdrasil, of course,” the figure said. “I have remained here for eons in search of a new guardian of the Nine, but I had not expected to find anyone now.”

“Er.” This was not what he had expected. “I was brought here by the group of sorcerers who-”

The Guardian hissed, a low, startling and powerful sibilant. “They have the right idea, but the wrong means of going about it.”

“What exactly are they doing?” Thor asked.

They turned to him. “Trying to wake Jormungandr, young prince.”

Thor and Loki stared up blankly at Them. They sighed. “Have you not heard of the legend of the World Serpent of Midgard?”

“I might have done so once,” Loki said. “Does that not mean the end of the world, of the Nine?”

“It does and it does not.” They stood. “Come with me.”

They swept past them gracefully. The brothers exchanged a look, considering what to do. Loki shrugged and nodded at Them, and Thor dipped his head in silent assent. They hurried after Them into a small chamber whose walls were lined with plans for… something. Clearer was the memory crystal displaying the records on a screen before them.

They beckoned the brothers to come forward, and let them examine the plans for themselves. They did so. Loki’s eyes widened as he reached the end of the description of the spellwork. “This in an incredibly ambitious project,” he murmured.

“What is it?” Thor asked.

“It’s the framework for a system called  _ Jormungandr _ . You might remember that the legend also speaks of the Serpent coiling around Midgard, and as long as he was asleep, Midgard would be safe. The name borrows on that. This is essentially a way to make a defence system work, since Asgard has ceased contact with the planet. I would assume that the sorcerers have been abducting those wanderers and harnessing their energy for the same?”

The last part was directed at the Guardian, who inclined Their head regally.

“Yes. They have become reckless and power-hungry in recent years, and this noble project has been neglected in their search for power over other sorcerers.”

“Was that why my wards could not detect them? THeir powers were corrupted because of the way they harnessed other magics?”

They nodded. “I would believe so.”

Loki looked back at the plans and the Guardian. “I wish to help,” he said, and felt more than saw Thor shift, startled, at his side. “What can I do?”

The Guardian smiled.

* * *

“That certainly was interesting,” Loki commented, after his laughter subsided.

“That was one word for it,” Thor muttered. “The horses had been stolen, as I suspected they would, and we had to walk the rest of the way to the Bifrost site.”

“It was not that far off,” Loki protested.

Thor grunted, but didn’t say anything.

“I believe  _ Jormungandr _ was what kept Thanos out of Midgard’s airspace for so long,” Loki said after a long silence. Thor was surprised, he hadn’t expected Loki to share much about the Titan now of all times.

“I couldn’t reinforce the spells after New York,” he continued. “Otherwise, who knows? With the Guardian, it might have been possible to ward him off for a while longer.”

“Loki, They had passed away years before New York.”

“I’m aware of that, brother,” Loki said. “You deigned to inform me even though I was merely a prisoner deep beneath the glamour of Asgard at the time.”

Thor bit his lip and nodded. Norns, while he might have told his brother of Their death, he hadn’t even bothered to tell him personally about their mother’s. Loki nudged him lightly.

“You’re likely beating yourself up over not telling me about Mother,” he said. “Don’t. There wasn’t any other way to go about it, you know that.”

“I wish there was,” Thor said, and sighed. “This is all very complicated to think about.”

Loki smiled. “I suppose then we could just look at the stars. After all, that  _ is _ what I brought us here for.”

Thor smiled back, relaxed further onto the blanket, and did just that.

**Author's Note:**

> There is an explanation for the different spelling in this and LoS, in case any of you wondered why - in the myths, the World Serpent's name is spelt both with and without the last 'r' in Jormungandr, depending on which source you look at. I also changed the spelling to establish a distinction between my take on the myth and Storyteller's.
> 
> Linked to my [Tumblr](https://silveryinkystar.tumblr.com/)


End file.
